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NI talents nominated for BAFTA and Oscar

Northern Ireland's animation and film-making talent has been recognised by two international award nominations.

The Crumblegiant, written and directed by Derry-based animator John McCloskey has received a BAFTA nomination in the Best Short Animation category.

Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, from Armagh, is in the running for an Achievement in Cinematography Oscar for his work on Atonement. McGarvey, whose other credits include The Hours, World Trade Centre and High Fidelity also picked up a BAFTA nomination last week.

'It's great whenever your film finds an audience,' says McCloskey. 'As an animator I spend a lot of time alone creating the animation and you're never sure how an audience will react to your work. The more people that see it the better and a BAFTA nomination is just brilliant.'

McCloskey's The Crumblegiant was made using traditional animation techiques and tells the story of an old woman recalling an episode in her childhood where the past becomes mingled with the present. The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh where it picked up the second prize in the Best Irish Short Animation.

McCloskey, an award-winning animator and film-maker who has been working in the Nerve Centre since 1994, has previously been shortlisted for the Cartoon D'or and is a past winner of the Best Animated Film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Celtic Film and Television Festival.

For his work on Atonement, Seamus McGarvey is up against Roger Deakins (The Assassination of Jesse James), Janusz Kaminski (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men) and Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood).

Another star of Atonement, Saoirse Ronan, has been nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category. Saoirse was in Belfast last year filming City of Ember for Tom Hanks's Playtone Productions and Walden Media.